Backwoods Home Magazine is about to become a print magazine again after a one-year hiatus as a digital-only publication. The person who is making this possible is my son, Sam Duffy, who will assume the role of publisher, a job I have had since founding BHM 29 years ago.… Read the rest

Pull into the driveway of any rural farm or homestead and you are bound to be greeted by a dog or two. Dogs become an integral part of many homesteads as livestock and property guardians or hunting dogs.… Read the rest

Residents of the Great Plains, it is said, had an imagination as fertile as their soil. In trying to get settlers to the Midwest in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a newspaper ad read: “Tickle the land with a hoe and watch your crops laugh all the way through the harvest!”

It was late spring, and there were bushes along the sides of the road sporting tiny white blossoms. I knew, as I had known for decades, that this was a precursor to berry cobblers and jelly.… Read the rest

Bone broth has been increasing in popularity with diets such as paleo, but broth is not new. Our ancestors used to boil the bones of animals, because they used everything from an animal, and recognized the nutritious qualities of the broth they were creating.… Read the rest

Eighteen years ago when we moved from our Maine homestead to Canada where we established a new homestead in the wilderness of northern Saskatchewan, we knew gardening was going to be a challenge.… Read the rest